Fitness goals

[cjsmith]

I'm missing anything to do with physical fitness in my life.

My foot problems make many activities challenging or downright not worth it. For well over a decade, I've just ignored the whole physical fitness realm. But I'm getting tired of being a complete couch potato.

I guess the first step is to decide what my goals are. Do I want to build a STRONG body? A STURDY AND RESILIENT body? A FLEXIBLE body? A body that MAY AGE WELL?

(Note the total lack of "slender" or "sculpted" in this list of possibilities. As long as I'm still carrying breasts around there's really no point making any minor optimizations to the rest of me, and besides, I think I am past the age where skin shrinks.)

Those of you who do or who consider doing physical fitness stuff: what are your goals?

Comments

[noelfigart]

For health, I am trying to lower my blood sugar levels, so there's the diet part. For actual physical fitness:

1. Swim a mile comfortably
   
2. Walk two miles without feeling tired afterwards
   
3. Lift a standard copier paper box of books comfortably
   
4. Wrangle a snow-blower after a two foot snowfall (I live in Northern New England)
   
5. Be able to stack a couple of cords of wood in a day (see previous)
   
6. Be able to help push a car out of a ditch (again, see previous)
   
7. Be active enough that I think driving to a grocery store is a silly waste of gas. This means being able to carry a heavy back pack full of groceries about a half a mile.
   
8. Be able to lift a suitcase over my head into the overhead compartment on a train or airplane
   
9. Be able to run from one end of an airport to another to catch a flight on too close of a connection.
   
10. Be able to give a four to six-hour lecture on my feet being physically active and animated the whole time. (I teach computer applications as well as rant about physical fitness. If you’re not active and animated, you lose your audience quick).
    
11. Be able to change a 5 gallon water jug in a water cooler without spilling water all over the floor or throwing out my back.

[cjsmith]

In other words, be able-bodied! ...I've already lost that one, though, so I need to think of other goals. Things that would still make sense were I in a wheelchair. I'm 15 years later than when the Stanford neurologist thought I'd be in a wheelchair, and (except for one summer long past) I'm still not in one, but I do need to plan.

[noelfigart]

Have you considered talking to a PT about it? Seriously, it's their job to help people work with disabilities and define what's a good level of fitness given a specific condition and to find appropriate goals. (IIRC, it's your feet, right?)

FWIW, if I don't work out, I can lose many of the above abilities easily. I'm keenly aware I'm temporarily able-bodied. (So is anyone who lives long enough, but you get my point)

[cjsmith]

Oh, the number of PTs I've talked to. I think I need something like Yelp (okay, without all the kickbacks that basically make Yelp a lie) for health practitioners. I need a GOOD PT. And a GOOD yoga instructor and... and and. Y'know. When I think too long about this, I get angry that such a fundamental thing isn't already out there in widespread use.

[noelfigart]

I hearya.

Being an outlier when you need services from a busy professional is a pain.

[cjsmith]

Mmmm, that's a very good way to sum it up!